Thomas Francis Darcy (December 19, 1932 – December 6, 2000) was an American

political cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curre ...

. While working at '' Newsday'', he won the 1970

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is one of the fourteen Pulitzer Prizes that is annually awarded for journalism in the United States. It is the successor to the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning awarded from 1922 t ...

. Thomas was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City and served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

from 1951 to 1953. He attended the Terry Art Institute in Florida from 1953 to 1954 and graduated from the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

) in New York in 1956, where he studied under Jack Markow and Burne Hogarth. He started at ''Newsday'' in 1956 in the advertising department and became a cartoonist for the paper the following year. He left for the ''

Phoenix Gazette The ''Phoenix Gazette'' was a newspaper published in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1881, and was known in its early years as the ''Phoenix Evening Gazette''. In 1889, it was purchased by Samuel F. Webb, who at the time was ...

'' in 1959, but he was too liberal for that newspaper, so the next year he headed back east to become an art director for the advertising agency Lenhart & Altschuler. He returned to editorial cartooning with brief stints at the ''

Houston Post The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the '' Houston Chronicle''. History Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston ...

'' (1965-1966) and the '' Philadelphia Bulletin'' (1966-1968). Publisher

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

brought Darcy back to ''Newsday'', where he would remain until his retirement 1997. Moyers gave him the "latitude" he needed to work. According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', he "was the first in a new wave of editorial cartoonists, who abandoned stylized cartooning and went straight for the jugular." He said that his work was "not for the amusement of the comfortable" and that "If it's big and struts through the door, hit it hard." In the '' World Encyclopedia of Cartoons'',

Rick Marschall Richard "Rick" Marschall (born February 3, 1949) Miller, John Jackson"Comics Industry Birthdays" ''Comics Buyer's Guide'', June 10, 2005. Accessed January 10, 2011. . is a writer/editor and comic strip historian, described by ''Bostonia'' magazine ...

compared Darcy to

Herblock Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock (October13, 1909October7, 2001), was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy. During the course of a career stretch ...

and

Paul Conrad Paul Francis Conrad (June 27, 1924 – September 4, 2010) was an American political cartoonist and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning. In the span of a career lasting five decades, Conrad provided a critical perspectiv ...

, noting his bold lines and his use of "facial expressions and emotions to advantage in depicting his characters." His Pulitzer submissions primarily concerned the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and inner-city problems. He drew a cartoon featuring an L-shaped coffin over which a general exclaims "Good news, we've turned the corner in Vietnam!" In other cartoons, Darcy featured President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

grabbing the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

columns as if they were jail bars, captioned "Prisoner of War," and another featuring two robed street prophets about to collide, carrying signs reading "Doomsday Is Coming!" and "The Mideast Is Here!" In addition to the Pulitzer, Darcy also won the Thomas Nast Award from the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

in 1970 and 1972 and a National Headliner Award. In 1977, Darcy left editorial cartooning and created a weekly page of social commentary and reporting called "Tom Darcy on Long Island". He said "After Nixon, Vietnam and civil rights, what's left to attack? I had too much of the sixties and seventies." In 1986, he was one of nine Pulitzer winners and over fifty cartoonists to participate in a collective protest, publishing cartoons against war-oriented toys during the

Christmas shopping The economics of Christmas are significant because Christmas is typically a high-volume selling season for goods suppliers around the world. Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the ...

season.

References

External links

1970 Pulitzer Prizes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darcy, Thomas Francis 1932 births 2000 deaths American editorial cartoonists Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners Newsday people United States Navy sailors